A Christmas Carol is an obvious one.
Most of Devil’s Advocate is a [day]dream…
Total Recall is deliberately ambiguous about the ‘reality’ of Arnie’s adventure. You can, with a bit of searching, find lengthy debates on the “Dream vs Reality” aspect, with both sides citing various details and plot points in support of their positions.
There is plenty of debate about Total Recall, but one side ultimately loses. Most of the movie was a dream. The only real debate is whether the whole thing is a dream, or if it starts when he goes to the Recall center. There are hints all over, but the undisputable facts that prove it is a dream are as follows:
- They show the ‘secret’ Alien Artifact at the Recall center
- The techie says ‘Blue skys over Mars - that’s original’
- The techie that comes into the dream acurately predicts the rest of the movie with something like 4 perfect predictions.
- The commentary on the DVD states that it is a dream
Anyone who remains in the ‘It was real’ camp in the face of these facts does so because they like the movie better that way. I’ve never seen anyone in that camp counter/justify these 4 facts, but I have seen many people ignore them. Whatever floats your boat, but if you want to be intellectually honest, you must admit that the movie is mostly a dream/memory.
DaLovin’ Dj
As a friend pointed out, there’s a great big argument in favor if its being a dream/false recollection, but only if you’re a stickler for technological accuracy. When the Michael Ironside character calls back to Mars while they’re hunting Arnold/Quaid on Earth, there’s no time delay. There ought to be a tangible delay of several seconds, were this the real world (nothing gives you the impression that this future can violate relativity). Ergo, this is a dream reality, where the speed of light is nt a limit.
Here is the Recall tech-guy speech:
I added the numbers. All of these predictions come true:
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Immediately after he shoots the tech, the walls crash down.
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The leader of the rebels believes that Swarznegger is the only hope and they join forces.
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It turns out that he used to work for Cohaagen.
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Ancient alien device (same one from the monitor at the Recall center) is found and transforms Mars (in 5 minutes or so) - giving it ‘Blue Skies’
DaLovin’ Dj
There are a few others if you are going to go with this line of thinking. Melting an icy core would not, as I understand it, result in a breathable atmosphere within a couple of minutes. Also, their heads and eyes swell up to about 5 times the normal size and then return to normal with no ill side effects. Sure.
Anyway, my favorite touch is the final ambiguous fade to white (instead of black), which is supposedly him waking up or getting lobotomized.
DaLovin’ Dj
Invaders from Mars is a dream. Or a precognitive one, at least, because at the end, everything starts to come true.
Femme Fatale is also mostly a dream/vision of the future.
dalovindj, As a note, I will buy all of these points except the fourth. This is actually a pet peeve of mine. I should be able to pick up the clues just from watching the movie as presented in the theater, and not have to rely on commentary and “bonus” material.
Otherwise, spot on.
Thanks. Glad you dug my analysis. . .
So how do you feel when directors go back and change their own films, giving them whole new or different meanings? For example, the Blade Runner director’s cut seemed to be trying to make it look like Deckard was a replicant, and George Lucas made Greedo shoot first. I understand that it is more fun to figure this type of stuff without the Director letting the cat out of the bag, but when they actually change stuff do you just ignore the new version? I know I ignore that Star Wars bullshit - Han shot first. But I like the idea that a director can return to his work and effect perceptions and meanings.
The movie “Once Upon a Time in America”, which jumps back and forth in time, was re-edited by the studios before release. They made it chronological instead. This was a terrible mistake. James Coburn was once speaking with the director (Sergio Leone), and he complained that they had taken the essense, the soul, out of his film. Coburn replied “Don’t worry, you can put it back in.” The movie is now sold as it was originally intended to be seen. My point is that I like the idea of a director being able to influence, shape, or change the meaning of their films even after release. The idea of a non-static, ever evolving piece kind of appeals to me. Anyway, to bring this full circle, that movie (Once Upon a Time in America) is most likely an opium-induced dream that De Niro’s character is having, as evidenced by the final shot of him as a young man in a daze, smiling at the ceiling. . .
DaLovin’ Dj
QUOTE=dalovindj, My take on this is rather complicated. I think that there are things like Blade Runner or Star Wars that, as far as I am concerned, are no longer “owned” by the creator (I know that I am legally dead wrong, but bear with me). They have become an important part of popular culture, and as such should not be tampered with.
In rare cases, like Blade Runner, the changes seem to add to the movie but most of the time (I’m looking at you, Lucas and Spielberg) it turns out to be revisionist crap.
Having said all of that, I have a lot less issue with a director getting to change things to be the way s/he intended in the first place but that the studio screwed up for some soulless marketing reason. I just think that they should be very careful when doing so, and respect the feelings of their fans.
Deckard was always meant to be a replicant, according to Scott; it was the studio that didn’t like it and added the happy ending (with footage lifted from the cutting from floor of The Shining, no less).
Lucas has also insisted that Greedo was meant to be going for his gun when Han shot him, and that the shot was added in ANH:SE to make this clear. While I can certainly buy that as an explanation - leaving aside the question of why Lucas didn’t restage the shot when he saw the dailies - he should have left alone because the scene works better with the happy accident.
Spielberg’s remaking of his own movies to make them more sanitary is indefensible, though. It wasn’t a friggin’ walkie-talkie; it was a shark, goddamnit, and everyone knows it.
Most of the events in Robot Monster are primarily dream-based.
Can you enlighten me? Not understanding this is making me wretch. 
The guns in E.T. were turned into walkie talkies.
Shark I assume refers to ‘jumping the shark’ for when a series goes off the rails and loses it’s way.
It’s a sad state of affairs when someone sees “Spielberg” and “shark” and this is the only connection they can make…
I wrote a short story that involved going into space and fighting aliens and getting into an impossibly tight situation, and realizing that I woke up and it was all a dream. I don’t recall the whole story nor the title because I was 8! when I wrote it. (crap, I’m gettin’ old, that was '74).
My teacher had suggested that it was not a good way to finish a story and that it is much more interesting and satisfying to come up with a way out of the situation. I think she had suggested something along the lines of pulling a ray gun that I had placed in my pocket earlier. She said that it was too easy for someone to come up with a difficult situation and rely on waking up from a dream to finish the story. (Oh, Miss Ivey, my only teacher crush…)
Since that day in grade 3, I have always been displeased with any sort of professionally written entertainment (book, TV, movie) that ends with the dreamer waking up. I learned my lesson when I was 8, there is no excuse.
I didn’t watch Dallas at all, but I felt so annoyed that they would so handily throw away a season by making the whole season a dream! It’s a friggin’ soap opera, come up with some sort of collusion between characters to explain Patrick Duffys return…shower, puhleez :rolleyes:
There was that episode of Star Trek: Next Generation where Riker was apparently imprisoned in an alian psych ward, and it all turned out to be multiple levels of hallucination.
One of my least favorite episodes, by the way…
Come to think of it, there was another episode (in the last season, as I recall) where Troi suffered a long and complex hallucination that was basically the entire episode.